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About fifteen years ago, I frequented a guitar shop in Florida. I decided to buy my first, decent guitar and I settled on a Squier. My recollection is, this was 1990 or 1991. The guitar is similar to a Showmaster or Stagemaster but still very different. Double cutaway, one single pickup and two doubles. No pickguard. Floyd Rose tune locking. I don't know if I ever knew much about the guitar just the way that I loved the tone, feel and looks. I have searched and cannot find any info about this guitar. If anyone knows it would be appreciated. I would love to know the specs, particularly the wood used for the body. I am listing to urls for pics. This one is the headstock and the hotlink should be the body.

I think you are right. After seeing your posts, I checked and it looks like a Squier HM. Thanks for that. Anyone know some of the specs of these guitars. They seem to be pretty hard to find and actually maintain a little of their value from what I saw.

Okay, I actually found what looks like the identical guitar but it doesn't really make sense. I started out finding a Fender/Squier Strat sight. I saw similar guitars so I emailed the owner of the website. He told me that it looked more like an Ibanez Maxxas. I looked up those but noticed it wasn't quite the same. Though I did find the exact match to the guitar in terms of looks. Right down to every detail, headstock, pickups and all. It's an Ibanez RG 470. These were made in Japan. Mine is a Squier made in Korea but I am wondering if the same company could have made the same guitar. Possibly a company like Cort who would have been licensed by both Fender and Ibanez. Cort also had factories in Japan that were moved to Korea. The Japanese factories could have still been around in the mid 80s but definitely were in Korea by the late 80s. Any thoughts or am I smoking crack on this one?

Nevermind. I apparently was smoking the cuttawys are a little different.

Hey Acidhouse, I have a Squier HM3 which I bought new in 1991. Mine has H-S-H pickup configuration, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5 way switch, Licensed Floyd Rose tremolo, pointy headstock. Surprisingly, the body isn't plywood but Basswood. The guitar was most likely made in the Samick factory in Korea.

Yea!!! Not plywood. I wasn't sure if it was made in the Cort or Samick factory. I didn't know who Fender was using back then. I am sure mine is an HM3. Out of curiousity, what color is yours? The only HM3's I have seen or read about are always white. The fact that mine was blue made me think maybe mine was an HM3 but called something else.

These were in fact made in the same factory that was making Ibanez guitars - Fujigen-Gakki.

The person on the "Possible Squier HM3" link above is correct that the HM3 is essentially an Ibanez Saber 540 with a few detail differences. (They are incorrect about the guitars being made at Samick or Cort, though).

The Saber is still around, but it's just called "S Series" now. The Japanese made HM3 would be more similar to what is now the high-end "S Prestige" rather than the lower end S series.

The Ibanez RG 550 was also slightly modified and sold as the Heartfield Talon and the Fender, Talon after Fender collapsed the Heartfield line.

I think it's good to bring this topic out every once in a while. I am the original poster. I think it was searching for information on my HM3 that brought me to the FDP.

I know a little bit more about these great guitars.
1. They are made in Korea.
2. They all have an E9 serial number.
3. At about the same time these were made, there was a more traditional Strat being made in the same factory that also bears an E9 serial number.
4. At the same time, there was also an S9 Strat that was almost identical to the E9 Strat. My guess is that S was Samick and E would have been for another company. Whoever E is, E company made the E9 Squiers and that included the HM3.
5. There is no proof that these were made in the same factory as the Ibanez Sabre. That is a popular rumor and at least for the bodies it could have been true but there is no proof other than the HM3's and the Sabre's looking alike and being made at the same time. The Ibanez Sabres did come out at approximately the same time and the bodies are identical with the exception of the jack placement. The HM3 is at the bottom and the Sabre is on the front. I believe the body wood of the Sabres is alder. The HM3s are basswood but I actually have a picture from an ebay ad in which someone stripped their HM3 and the upper horn appears to be quilted maple. The Sabres are 24 fret and the HM3s are 22. The necks are not the same.

The paint jobs varied all over the place. Mine was electric blue. There was white, black, a burgundy sparkle color and the very famous crackle finish. I owned a crackle finish for a little while but realized that I didn't need two HM3s. Some actually had set necks and the most rare one I ever saw was on ebay. It was a set neck and trans orange in color.

In other news, I swapped out the pickups and installed Dimarzios in all positions, (Breed, Evolution and Pro Track). I also installed a fast loading FR system and changed out the tuners. I painted the knobs and replaced the pickup rings and the switch tip. I had some fun with my little HM3. You only have one, 1st guitar, and I decided it was worth it to me to upgrade. Over the years, the acoustic tone of the HM3 has really mellowed. I notice this with a lot of guitars. Most woods tend to get better with age. I'm still amazed that these little babies can be bought for about $100.00.

This is the E9 Strat made in the same factory. You may not be able to tell from the picture but the color of the HM3 Strat and the Standard Strat are identical. (Good poly coating in that they look the same today as they did in the early 1990s). This is a different blue than LPB and these are the only two guitars with the exception of a couple of other HM3s I have ever seen to have this blue.

I have seen the S9 Strats and they seem to have the exact same specs as the E9 Strat above. Full sized steel block, Fender stamped saddles, generic tuners. As far as I know the S9s are all ply and some of the E9s are. Mine, in the below picture is a solid body and, at least in acoustic tone, doesn't sound like basswood. It definitely sounds different than the HM3 which does have that 'plucky' basswood sound.

This post may seem a little off topic but the blue Strat gives some sort of clue as to the HM3s' origins.

As a little side note, the HM3 was my first guitar and I bought the Blue Strat a few months ago. After about a month it hit me that it was an E9 Strat like the HM3 and the blue was too vibrant to be a true LPB. I pulled out the HM3 and put them side by side. It made me laugh that after going through a slew of guitars over the years that I had almost come full circle and inadvertently bought the sister of my original HM3.

There's definitely a connection between the HM3 and the Sabre bodies I just don't know what it is. It could be anything from the bodies being Japanese and being made in the same plant to Fender/Squier ripping off Ibanez for a change and copying the body in a Korean plant. The entire HM series was definitely a nod to Ibanez.

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